A/V Production – iOS to macOS

Add iOS Audio to your Dante Network

As you likely know, Dante doesn’t support iOS devices, natively. Of course, the Dante range, including Via, DVS, and Controller allow for a wide variety of audio routing options, including from applications, hardware, and multi-computer setups including MacOS and Windows. Amongst these options, it occurred to me today there was a way to utilize Dante for iOS Audio Routing.

There are at least 2 viable methods to utilize Dante with iOS Audio. The first is IDAM (Inter Device Audio & MIDI Mode). IDAM relies on the Apple Lightning-to-USB cable plugged between your iOS device and the Mac. In Audio MIDI Setup you iOS device will show as an Audio Device, Clicking Enable starts IDAM. For Dante Audio you’ll need al of your Audio Devices and any Audio Sources set to 48k. Devices not set to this rate will not work as Dante Senders or Receivers.

Studiomux & Dante

Studiomux Audio Router

The second way is to utilize Studiomux. I’ve written an intro to Studiomux you can reference if you’re not familar with its functionality. But in short, with Studiomux up and running it automatically creates an Audio Device on the Mac,

Studiomux Audio Device – Shown as 10.5 (iOS Device name)

which can then be added to Dante Via as a Sender or Receiver. Again, make sure Studiomux and all its hosted apps are set to 48k, along with the normal iOS advice of making sure sample rates and buffer sizes are uniform across the audio chain.

Dante Via

Dante Via from Audinate is quite a robust platform, and if you’re familiar with Dante you know they are leading the way in networked audio application platform adoption. There’s well over 1000 Dante-enabled products out there. Dante isn’t free, but if you’re looking for a robust audio routing system between computers, hardware, application, and even networks, it’s definitely a solid and well-established platform.

As I mentioned above, there are three Dante applications to consider. Dante Via is great for routing Audio on a single computer. If you need to additionally routed audio over your network to other computers, then Dante Controller is required. Coupling these two applications provides the ability to

route any audio endpoint to any other, so long as they’ve been “Dante-enabled” in Via. I won’t go into routing here, but an overview of the possibilities is suitable.

As you see in the illustration, I’ve enabled IDAM for my iPad Pro 10.5 and my iPad Mini 4, and am running Studiomux, which shows as 10.5, and Mini 4 (both 18 ins / 2 outs). IDAM, unfortunately, only provides 1 stereo audio channel from the iOS device to the Mac. So with IDAM you cannot route Audio back to your iOS Device. Studiomux on the other hand enables an 18/2 Audio device,

and the 2 Channels are actually deceptive, as you can use any of the 18 Channels as I/O’s, giving a ton of flexible routing options, and each channel can listen to any one or more of the other channels.

Via – Drag and Drop Audio Sources

As the image shows, you can drag any Audio Source to Audio Destinations in Dante Via, making it very easy to configure Audio Flows. Again, I won’t go into the specifics of Dante’s audio feature sets, but they are impressive. I use Rogue Amoeba’s audio tools as well.

Rogue Amoeba Line-Up

Loopback is especially good, allowing you to create Virtual Audio pass through devices, aggregate, and nested devices as well. SoundSource is a powerful little application that lets you quickly play through Audio on device I/O’s, and Audio Hijack is another powerful router that allows me to quickly record any Audio on any channel, at any point in the audio flow. Again, like Dante, Rogue isn’t a free platform, but I decided to make the investment as it was far more affordable than setting up other audio routing with hardware, allowing me to utilize the computers I had around the house to distribute my audio processing and gain more channels than a single system affords. I can also route Mac audio through Windows, such that I’m not limited in what plugins and architectures I wish to employ.

So if you’re already using Dante, the above methods will bring your iOS audio into your Dante Network. While IDAM is unidirectional, Studiomux enumerates a robust 18/2 Audio Device, together the two provide an affordable option when coupled with an existing Dante network, or if you’re looking to extend your audio network, the Dante platform is a good solution.

Use Ideas for Studiomux + IDAM + Dante

Below, as a recap, are some of the reasons you might look into adding the above Audio Utilities into your workflow.

Routing iOS Audio between any audio endpoint on your network

Distribute Audio Processing across your devices so you can run more plugins, have more channels etc

An easy to work with GUI for Audio Routings if you frequently make changes to .your setup

Multicomputer setup for bands, studios, any scenario where you want to quickly add and route audio sources

Extending channels, recording abilities, and the like where channels or sources and destinations are limiting